Interview With Barbara Forrest

by tristero

Recently, I had a chance to meet Barbara Forrest, one of the most important witnesses in the so-called Scopes 2 trial. (Ultimately, I think history may judge the Dover trial far more important a defense of scientific inquiry. For one thing, the good guys won this time). Her book, co-authored with Paul Gross, called Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design is a compellingly written history of the “intelligent design” creationism movement and I cannot reccommend it more highly. I wrote a detailed review of it here which led to a correspondence with Dr. Forrest and our delightful discussions about Darwin and music over a fine Italian meal. She is interviewed here about the Dover trial and it is well worth reading. Barbara is a Louisiana native, through and through, born and raised there. She is also a card-carrying member of ACLU, a member of American United for Separation of Church and State and most importantly, as one would expect from someone with such credits, she is wickedly smart and articulate. If you have a chance to hear her speak, go.

After Judge Jones’s decision in the Dover trial, it is hard to imagine that “intelligent design” creationism will ever legally recover. True, they can change the name again, but Jones’s decision made it pretty clear that the courts were not going to tolerate such underhanded tactics to sneak a cheap, cult theology into science classes (or any other kind of theology). But as Barbara makes clear in the interview, these people are not going away. The fight to undermine science will continue as it is part of even a larger war. As hard as it may be to believe, “intelligent design” creationism is, in fact, the wedge – the opening tactic – of an elaborate strategy to establish an American theocracy. It is well-funded by some of the wealthiest names on the extreme right.

The overarching objectives behind ID and its influences are still little-understood by the larger public, or even by those of us who are involved in mainstream politics. Hopefully, in the next few days I’ll be able to post some of the results of some recent research I’ve been doing.